paraíso

Forms

paraíso m (plural paraísos)^[1] Old Spanish usually wrote parayso; some manuscripts of Berceo still have paradiso, but paraíso prevails from the 14th century.^[2][3] A popular pronunciation paráiso is found in Spain and the Americas.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish parayso, inherited from Late Latin paradīsus (“park; paradise”), a semi-learned descendant of the Latin word.^[2][4][5][1] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos, “enclosed park; garden of Eden”), an Iranian word.^[2][6][1]

Beekes takes the Greek word from Avestan pairi-daēza- (“enclosure”) and its Middle Iranian successor.^[7] The Iranian element for “wall” is cognate with τεῖχος (teîkhos, “wall”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ-.^[7] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Iranian *paridayjah.^[1] Gómez de Silva analyses the Avestan word as “around” and “wall”, a walled park.^[8]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese paraíso, Galician paraíso, Italian paradiso and French paradis, and through a pronunciation with /v/ Old French parevis, French parvis (“square in front of a church”) and paraviso.^[9][10][2] The REW explains the /v/ by the late Greek pronunciation of δ as a spirant.^[9] The Basque forms are parabisu and pharadisi.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), in Jimena's prayer about the two thieves crucified with Christ: el uno es en paraíso, ca el otro non entró allá, “one is in paradise, for the other did not go there”.^[11][2] Here it is the heaven of the blessed; the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) has el huerto de parayso, the garden from which Adam and Eve were driven.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Both senses, the garden of Eden and the heaven of the angels and the just, are found in Alfonso X's prose, which also has paraíso celestial.^[12] In 1869 the Academy gave the figurative sense of any delightful place and the phrase paraíso de los bobos for idle daydreams, and in 1899 the highest and cheapest seats of a theatre.^[13][14] Today the DLE also lists paraíso fiscal, a tax haven.^[5]

In Argentina the word names the tree Melia azedarach, a shortening of árbol del paraíso.^[2] Nebrija already has árbol de paraíso as a plant name in 1492.^[15] The DAMER records this tree name in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Argentina and Uruguay.^[16] The word was borrowed into Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano and Waray-Waray as paraiso.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has el uno es en paraíso.^[11][4]
• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar speaks of el huerto de parayso.^[11]
• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo, the first record without a later copy, names the four rivers that flow from paradise.^[11]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses ligustrum as árbol de paraíso.^[15]
• 1518 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1869 – the Academy gives the figurative sense “delightful place”.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “top gallery of a theatre” and gives the etymology from Latin, Greek and Persian.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Bible) The garden of Eden where God placed Adam and Eve; also paraíso terrenal.^[5][1]
2. heaven, the place where the blessed enjoy the presence of God.^[5][1]
3. (figurative) A very pleasant place: Esta playa es un paraíso.^[5][18]
4. (theatre) The top gallery, the cheapest seats (gallinero).^[5][18]
5. (Latin America) The chinaberry tree, Melia azedarach.^[16]

Word family

• ave del paraíso

Related words

• paradisíaco
• Latin paradisus
• Portuguese paraíso
• French parvis

Usage notes

Set phrases include paraíso terrenal “earthly paradise”, paraíso fiscal “tax haven” and ave del paraíso “bird of paradise”.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 389
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. paraíso
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paraíso
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. paraíso
6. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. paraíso
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6223
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. parvis
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. paraíso
12. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. paraíso
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 573
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 740
15. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. paraíso
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. paraíso
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. paraíso
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paraíso